by David on January 16, 2008
Last week I received an email announcing the relaunch of Success magazine. As the email was unsolicited - and technically spam - it didn’t seem a particularly auspicious way to relaunch a magazine! But it did lead me to dig out my old copy of Success, which I purchased in Chicago on my only visit (to date) to the USA - in February 1982.
Its a long story as to why I was in Chicago in winter, and I’m not really sure why my magazine has survived 26 years (and that I could find it!). Ironically 1982 was the least successful year of my life as I spent most of it unemployed and lacking confidence in myself. I had yet to learn that reading self development material isn’t enough - you have to take action..
Reading any old publication gives a fascinating insight into how far some things have changed. There is a feature on a new form of dancing called “aerobics”, an advert using John DeLorean to promote a brand of whiskey and the cover feature/main interview is Johnny Carson (“shy and introverted as a youngster”). The other big interview is Brent Musburger, who I gather is still around today.
In many other respects, the magazine is remarkably undated. [click to continue...]
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by David on December 31, 2007
Today is the last day of 2007. Many people are busy setting New Years Resolutions like “I will lose 20lbs”, “I will stop smoking”, “I will go to the gym twice a week”. The sort of resolutions/targets/goals - whatever you want to call them - that have often fizzled out by the end of January.
Two posts I wrote recently (Do you have passion or desire?, are goals necessary?) have highlighted my uncertainties about goal setting. Its something I have been studying - partly because I have seldom got it right myself. I’ll come back to this in the next posts. But there are two things I have always got right.
One, January 1st isn’t the only day you can start new goals. In many ways its a poor day. Many set goals, like those above, based on consuming less - be it food, smoke, alcohol, money. This reflects a holiday season of excess rather than any real motivation to change.
[click to continue...]
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by David on December 19, 2007
Over the last couple of weeks, it was impossible to listen to a news bulletin without hearing the phrase “road map” - often accompanied with the Talking Heads “Road to Nowhere”! The politicians then emerged with the “Bali Road Map” - basically agreeing to continue discussions for a further two years.
Politicians seem to like their Road Maps. Personally I have always like maps, and would go as far as saying I am very good at reading them. The difference is that politicians seem to use maps to describe plans (however vague), rather than something that basically shows all the possible places we can go.
As we head for a new year, many see it essential to start looking at new goals, “resolutions”, perhaps their own road map. I did raise the question a few weeks ago, are goals necessary? There was an excellent post by Michael Martine recently I have big hot burning desires, in which he dissected all the traditional arguments in favour of goal setting. As the title suggests, he feels burning desire is the driving force behind any achievement. My own philosophy uses the passion in a similar way. [click to continue...]
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by David on October 10, 2007
Reflecting on how I have changed over the past 6 months of writing this blog, and interacting with others here and in forums, my attitude towards goal setting has become less clear. I’ve always believed that having clearly defined, measurable goals is essential - even though I have struggled to use goal setting effectively myself over the years.
Since I qualified as an occupational therapist in 1987 I’m now in my 8th job. By taking certain directions I’ve gradually narrowed my options, but I’ve never set clear career goals.
Using the common argument in favour of goals, that without its like asking a bus driver for a ticket to anywhere, you could argue I have jumped on buses that have passed by that happened to be going in an interesting direction! [click to continue...]
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by David on September 30, 2007
Although its Sunday lunchtime, when many families gather together, I’m sitting alone in our house as my wife and two younger daughters are all working and our eldest is 275 miles away! I will return to this on Wednesday with a look at habits and routines.
I don’t usually like intrusive noise in my environment, but prefer undistracting music rather than silence. However, at the moment I can hear the television in the room next door which is broadcasting the Great North Run. This is a half marathon road race, where thousands of people rise to the challenge of running 13 miles and usually trying to raise money for worthy causes.
I have touched on challenges like this before, such as my Big Swim, and the Confidence Marathon posts. Important as setting ourselves challenges can be, it nice to be reminded that throughout the world people are having to overcome challenges imposed on them by circumstances of birth and nature. [click to continue...]
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by David on September 12, 2007
Following on from my post on affirmations, there is no denying that for most people the act of reciting positive affirmations is quite strange. Like with other forms of goal setting, you write them out with the best of intention – but never get around to looking at them on a regular basis. More importantly, affirmations have to be read with emotion and made to feel real – otherwise your subconscious mind will not take them on as reality.
In the past I have tried computer software and subliminal CDs to help this process and tried to make my own affirmation board – a combination of affirmation statements and pictures/photographs. Despite my interest in photography, this never properly got off the ground. But over the past 3 months I have been trying a new piece of software called “Vision Board“. This helps you create an active screensaver, which is a combination of photographs and affirmations. [click to continue...]
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